Council coffers in Reading have swelled thanks to £1.6 million from parking fines

Council coffers in Reading have swelled thanks to a whopping £1.6 million from parking fines – but a taxpayers’ group is not impressed.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance has criticised the £1,613,559 made by Reading Borough Council after its survey revealed nearby Wokingham and Bracknell have much smaller incomes from fines.

The group has conducted a joint survey with the Drivers’ Alliance and it said some councils use the fines as a money-spinner rather than parking enforcement.

Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) made just £46,481 between May 2008 and September 2009 and Bracknell Forest Council £92,605 from parking fines.

People in Wokingham pay only 49p per head on average in parking tickets per year – against a staggering £12.69 in Reading, £9.17 in Windsor and Maidenhead and £1.14 in Bracknell.

In Wokingham, on-street parking is still controlled by the police, while council car parks are patrolled by WBC. In Reading, the council controls both on-street parking and car parks.

A spokeswoman for the Taxpayers’ Alliance said: “Councils need to ensure parking enforcement systems are fair and do not use drivers as a source of revenue.

“It is essential residents in each of the councils know these figures so they can decide for themselves if the council is being particularly hawkish with parking enforcement.”

Peter Roberts, head of the Drivers’ Alliance, said: “Parking enforcement has become a massive money-making industry and we are seeing unscrupulous and target-driven enforcement of parking where the penalties far outweigh the offence.”

But Tony Page, lead councillor for strategic planning and transport, insisted: “Reading runs a fair and transparent parking enforcement system. To compare the number of tickets issued in Reading to those in either Bracknell or Wokingham is completely misleading and ridiculous and takes no account of markedly different local conditions.”